Ellen DeGeneres Denounces Trump’s Immigration Ban with the Political Allegory of ‘Finding Dory’

Donald Trump incited widespread panic among his many detractors when he first elbowed his way into the American presidency back in November. But even as matters got bleaker and bleaker, some tried to find a silver lining in the notion that a slide into fascism would at least yield some good ‘n’ furious protest art. Little did we know that the most searing indictment of Trump and his policies had already been scripted, completed, and released months before the noted reality TV star took office. I am referring, of course, to the complex political allegory Finding Dory.

Trump screened the Pixar blockbuster at the White House on Sunday, a somewhat surprising move considering that the film was shut out of the Best Animated Feature category at the Oscars, marring it as a “loser” in the President’s estimation. At any rate, star Ellen DeGeneres took notice of this and used her daytime talk show as a platform to offer some thinly veiled comments on the new administration. Variety reports that in a segment on her show airing today, she breaks down how the subtext of Finding Dory runs in direct opposition to the self-interest-serving, xenophobic executive order restricting immigration that Trump ordered last weekend.

Relating the basic plot of Nemo’s determined mission to rescue sweet but forgetful Dory from an oceanic study facility, DeGeneres said, “They all have to get over the wall, and you won’t believe it, but that wall has almost no effect in keeping them out.” It’s not tough to read between the lines and understand that she’s mocking Trump’s proposed wall along the southern border of the United States intended to keep undocumented immigrants out.

She then turned to Trump’s highly controversial international immigration ban, contrasting it with the spirit of togetherness in Finding Dory: “Animals that don’t even need her, animals that don’t have anything in common with her, they help her, even though they’re completely different colors. Because that’s what you do when you see someone in need — you help them.” A simple but powerful sentiment from the woman behind the cartoon fish; that’s just political radicalism in 2017.